Gaze Into the Future of Cybersecurity with Microsoft’s New Model

Is it possible to predict the future? Not quite — but with Cyberspace2025, organizations have a chance to make some solid predictions to protect their data and plan for success.

Microsoft’s new simulation helps governments, corporations, and other organizations see how today’s cybersecurity decisions will affect the world of 2025, where — based on current trends — 4.7 billion people will be online, and 80% of Internet connections could originate from a mobile device.

“The Cyberspace2025 model illustrates that the failure to prepare for these demographic shifts, particularly aging populations, can have serious consequences for unprepared countries,” says Matt Thomlinson, Vice President, Microsoft Security. “It even affects cybersecurity as many more ICT systems are deployed to scale services that countries may lack the technical expertise to manage.”

The model offers three views of the future:

Peak — one of continuing growth and effective policies

Plateau — one where society struggles with the challenges of cybersecurity, and

Canyon — the worst-case scenario, with cybersercurity that fails to respond to changing technology or threat conditions.

Among the recommendations made by the report, reaching the Peak scenario means companies and policymakers should focus on Internet privacy, advance cybersecurity risk management, harmonize cybersecurity laws and standards, and invest in infrastructure, R&D, talent retention, and workforce education.